I’m not big on travelling. I suffer from jet lag, hate airports, find hotel rooms claustrophobic and have an inordinate fear of turbulence. I don’t like exchanging currency, living out of a suitcase or ending up in a courtroom in Florence where everyone is speaking Italian while I have to identify the Peruvian pickpocket who ripped off my bag at the airport. Yes, that actually happened.

Yet as much as I’m not a great traveller, I’m hugely keen on the idea of escape. Ah, yes — escape, which unlike travel, is just about getting away from home. You jump in your car at your leisure, choose a country house hotel in your price range and drive into the sunset with your only goal being to make it from point A to point B in time for dinner.

Europeans are big on this sort of getaway, be it for a little hanky-panky, recovering from a nervous breakdown or merely to get out of the city to lounge at a hotel where the gardens are lovely, the views are bosky and the bartender knows how to mix a mean gin and tonic. Montrealers can also partake in this sort of two-day retreat, and I can think of few places as lovely to indulge as Hovey Manor.

Located on the shores of Lake Massawippi, Hovey Manor is slightly removed from the picture-pretty town of North Hatley, and when I say slightly removed I mean you take a right instead of a left when you hit the fork in the road off the highway. This is my second visit to this posh Relais & Châteaux property, known to many for its four-season luxury appeal and fine dining room overseen by executive chef Roland Ménard and chef de cuisine Francis Wolf.

In the winter of 2011, foodies were aghast to hear there was a fire in the dining room area at Hovey, an especially frightening thought considering the last gorgeous Relais & Château in this area, the legendary Auberge Hatley, was completely devastated by fire in 2006. Though the fire at Hovey was quickly contained, renovations to the dining room and several bedrooms were required.

Friendly with a few North Hatley gourmets, I’ve been secretly inquiring about how the renovations have changed the Hovey experience. Some grumble about the modern decor, while others grumble about the new bar area. Happily, none of the grumbling had to do with the food. On a recent hot Saturday, I decided to make the two-hour drive from the city to see for myself.

There’s nothing quite like turning into the driveway at Hovey, then walking down to the majestic main entrance framed by white pillars. Entering the hotel, you’re transported to some sort of Merchant-Ivory setting. It all just feels so English and chintzy, and I mean chintzy in the best sense of the word. Standing on the terrace, surrounded by flowers overlooking the lake and pool, I feel the city tensions subside. This place is even prettier than I remember.

I arrive at the hotel early in order to enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail. But my plan goes sideways as the bar in the anteroom of the dining room is bartender-less. We take a seat and wait, and wait. Eventually, I spot the maître d’, but he’s busy instructing a busboy to make sure a certain VIP’s side plates are well polished, as we sit ignored in the corner, getting thirstier by the second. Hmm ...

Anyway, on to the dining room, which really has been given the facelift it deserves. With pretty pastel chairs and a sort of collage-like wall treatment that evokes birch trees and forest scenes, this is one elegant dining space. I don’t know what the grumblers were going on about; the room now is far fresher than the austere panelled room of the past.

The menu is divided into two options: a three-course menu for $68, or a tasting menu at $95 ($160 with wine pairings). The emphasis here is on Quebec ingredients that extends to the wine list, which includes a selection of Quebec and Canadian bottles. Wine prices are steep, but this a swish restaurant deep in the countryside, not some grungy wine bar on the Plateau. Yet the word “country” is a bit misleading. Though ignored upon arrival, the wait staff is all over us once we’re seated. Their manner is a little stuffy, but that’s understandable. I just wish they didn’t come and ask us if everything was OK about three times after each plate is served.

Now onto the food, which veers into precious-plate-presentation territory at times, yet is delicious enough to hold its head high. After an amuse-bouche consisting of a halibut croquette served on sour cream, we shared an order of mushroom soup. Served with a tiny quail’s egg, a few micro greens and fresh morels, the delectable potage had the most true woodsy mushroom taste I’ve enjoyed in ages. Quel treat!

Next up came the appetizers, one featuring lobster, the other, deer tartare. Placed on a grid made of parsley cream, the first dish’s elements include nuggets of lobster topped with radishes, new potatoes dotted with lovage mayonnaise, lobster roe, ribbons of rhubarb and dabs of tomato cream. Boy, I loved this. With such a great variety of tastes and textures, this dish ranks as one of the best I’ve tasted in 2012.

I also enjoy the deer tartare, which was also given the grid treatment, but this time the ingredients included burnished yellow beets, quenelles of the spicy tartare topped with tiny potato chips, pickled onions and a scattering of arugula sprouts. So good.

The main courses were presented in a simpler style. Mine, a duck magret served with a licorice sauce, roasted baby beets and wilted Swiss chard, was excellent, even if the duck could have been more tender. Especially successful was the wine pairing, a velvety Masi Toar, provided by sommelier Steve L’abbé.

With the remains of our bottle of chardonnay, Rully 1er Cru, we also tasted the oil-poached salmon. Served with sea asparagus, chopped black olives and diced potato, the generous salmon filet is topped with roasted artichokes. Can’t say this dish did it for me; the fish flesh is too mushy, and the accompaniments weren’t peppy enough to boost the fish. Pity.

During the meal, I notice the cheese cart being wheeled around the dining room, and when it stops in front of us pre-dessert, I count 19 specimens, most of which are from Quebec and many of which are local. We chose three that are plated with dried fruit and nuts, but alas, tasteless croutons. The bread here comes from Pain Doré, which is a shame considering there are great bakeries in the area, such as Owl’s Bread in Magog.

For dessert, we enjoy a plate of chocolate croquettes served with chocolate cream and a twisty ribbon of white chocolate flan. Though quite full after the cheese, I had no trouble devouring that one. I also relish a dessert made with pistachio cookies and cherry compote, whose star attraction was the griottine sorbet. Yum!

I exited the Hovey dining room to a chorus of “au revoirs,” which almost made me forget the cold shoulder I experienced upon arrival. That was a definite low point of my night, and I will not soon forget the scene when our waiter from Lyon, in this dining room in North Hatley, told me that the Pied de Vent cheese from the Magdalen Islands was actually from Iberville. And the boy was convinced!

This is an excellent restaurant, certainly worth the detour, and even the added expense of a room for those unwilling to drive back to the city post-feasting. Yet I felt the service could use polishing. After all, when you plan a great escape to such lofty hotels, is it too much to expect the welcome mat be unrolled upon arrival?

For more food and wine talk, tune in to Dinner Rush with Lesley Chesterman on Saturdays from 4 to 5 p.m. on News Talk Radio CJAD 800.

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